Mets general manager Sandy Alderson participated in a Q & A session with season ticket holders earlier today at Citi Field and was asked about speculation on Twitter and blogs regarding Daniel Murphy as a potential trade candidate. According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, Alderson downplayed the possibility of a trade while offering some words of wisdom about Internet trade speculation:

“Look, we have a real appreciation for Dan Murphy. Murphy is somebody who is an offensive player, who has really done some things this year to improve himself as an offensive player. His on-base percentage is much higher than it has been in recent years. He goes the other way. So there’s no question in terms of this ballpark, he’s been a plus. You know, we talk about all the time: We’re looking for players that are willing to play in New York or can play in New York. He hits in New York. He hits in this ballpark.

“He’s done a nice job getting himself to the point where he plays second base as well as he does. So, you know, I haven’t been on Twitter in a long time. So I know you haven’t been reading my tweets. And I don’t think you’ve been reading them from Terry [Collins] either. So, at this point, do what I do: Ignore Twitter and try to ignore the blogosphere and have a beer when you go home tonight.”

This explains why Alderson hasn’t responded to my tweets regarding trade ideas for Marlins’ outfielder Giancarlo Stanton. I see how it is. You are only hurting yourself, dude.

Alderson burst onto the Twitter scene with a series of entertaining jokes about the team’s finances in the spring of 2012, but the tweets have been few and far between since. His last tweet was in February of this year to encourage folks to vote for Mets captain David Wright as the “Face of MLB.”

The stuff yesterday in which folks reacted negatively to Mets’ second baseman Daniel Murphy going on paternity leave has hit the sports yakkers. Today Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason took on the subject. Their take: in Esiason’s words, Murphy should “get his ass back to work.” Boomer also says that Murphy’s wife should’ve had a C-section before the season started so Murphy didn’t miss any time:

For his part, Mike Francesa called paternity leave “a scam-and-a-half” and started ranting about the very concept of paternity leave, saying that Murphy is rich enough to where he should hire a nurse to look after his wife and child.

“He missed two games,” the manager said. “It’s not like he has missed ten. When you start attacking Dan Murphy’s credibility, you need to look in the mirror a little bit . . . The man had his first child. He is allowed to be there. The rules state that he can be there, so he went. There is nothing against it. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Murphy himself took a more diplomatic approach, but made it clear where his priorities stand:

“I can only speak for my experience,” Murphy said. “She was completely finished. She was done. She had had surgery, and she was wiped. So having me there, I think, helped a lot, and vice versa.”

Not that he should have to defend himself. Paternity leave has been shown to have a number of huge benefits, including but not limited to helping forge stronger family bonds and benefiting women who desire to go back into the workforce following the birth of their children. At least one study has shown that the lack of paternal involvement in infant care is significantly associated with the intensity of maternal postpartum depression.

Maybe a rich professional athlete’s partner has financial and personal resources great enough to where the father’s absence can be made up for in part, thereby limiting the necessity of paternity leave compared to that of normal people. But mocking an athlete for taking paternity leave like this is to mock the very concept of paternity leave altogether and to make it seem that much more unacceptable for men to do the right thing and be there for their child and its mother at the most critical of times.

While it’s ridiculous that anyone listens to these yakkers and takes anything approaching an example from them, the fact is that many do. Shame on these neanderthals for mocking paternity leave in general and Daniel Murphy specifically.